Taken Care of
by Sand-wolf579
Summary: Clemont knew that his sister would always feel the need to take care of him, and he appreciated that. But sometimes he wished that she, and everybody else, would realize that he could take care of himself.


**A/N: I'm not sure when, but at some point I began to see Clemont as autistic. Maybe it's the way that he reacts when he's faced with direct conflict. Maybe it's his love and enthusiasm for science and technology. Maybe it's the way that Bonnie asks girls to 'take care' of him. Or maybe it's just because Bonnie insists that he's shy when Clemont can sometimes be one of the most outgoing people in the show, depending on the situation. Whatever the reason, it's how I see Clemont being, and it's something I wanted to write about.**

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It was always embarrassing and humiliating when Bonnie decided to take Clemont's personal life into her own hands. It had been bad enough when they were younger and the worst that Bonnie did was try to give him dating and flirting advice. At some point though, Bonnie had decided that there was no way that Clemont would make a move on a girl himself, so she had decided that the next logical step was to get a girl to make the first move on him.

Ever since then, Bonnie seemed to consider any young woman they met to be a potential spouse for Clemont. When she had first started, Bonnie had asked pretty much anybody, but eventually she started to get more picky. Clemont knew how much Bonnie admired and cared about him, and he knew that anybody she tried to match him with would have to be worthy in her eyes.

Clemont had tried over and over again to tell Bonnie why she couldn't just meddle in his life like this, and why she especially shouldn't involve other people as well, but anything he said seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Of course, it didn't help that Clemont could never come up with an argument that was as good as Bonnie's defense.

Clemont was always extremely flustered about Bonnie's little habit, and she was so sure that she was right that trying to argue with her did little good. Bonnie was always so much more confident than Clemont was, even when he knew that he was right. Despite his better judgement, Clemont couldn't stand up for himself against his little sister.

And yes, he knew how pathetic it was.

Clemont hated it when Bonnie went around asking complete strangers if they would 'take care of him', but he was slowly coming to terms with the fact that he couldn't do anything to make her stop. It was just something that he would have to deal with until Bonnie grew out of it.

He should have known that Bonnie wouldn't be satisfied with the way that she had been doing things. He should have expected that she would take things too far. Maybe if he had seen it coming, he could have been better prepared for it, and it wouldn't have hurt as much.

"Clemont!" The young inventor dragged his eyes away from the shop window that he had been looking into and turned to see his little sister running towards him, a relieved look on her face. "You have to stop disappearing like that. We've been looking everywhere for you. "

"...You have?" Clemont blinked in confusion as he tried to recognize just what he had missed. They had been walking through the latest town when Clemont had spotted some unique tools in a window that they passed by. He had just been planning on looking at them for a second, and he hadn't even noticed that the others had continued on without him. "Sorry, I-I got distracted."

Bonnie sighed in a defeated but fond way. "That's my brother for you." Bonnie turned around and shrugged to young woman who Clemont hadn't even realized had followed her. "He's always wandering off like this."

Clemont felt his face heat up. "I don't _always_ wander off. And _you_ were the one that walked away from _me,_ remember?"

Bonnie put her hands on her hips and pouted. "You know I can't always be here to look after you." Clemont hated it when Bonnie said things like this. He was the older brother here, and yet she seemed to think that she was the responsible one who had to keep him safe.

"You really seem to care about your brother, Bonnie." The young woman knelt down closer to Bonnie's level. There was a kind smile on her face, but there was a look in her eyes that Clemont didn't like, but was all too familiar with.

"Yeah, Clemont's great!" Bonnie exclaimed enthusiastically, and this would have pleased Clemont greatly if he didn't have a guess as to where Bonnie was going with this. "He's an inventor, and a gym leader, and he's _super_ nice." Clemont made a mental note to ask Bonnie to write up his resume, because she really knew how to lay it on thick.

"A gym leader?" The young woman smiled and laughed slightly at Bonnie's words. She didn't seem to believe her, but it didn't look like she was trying to be malicious in her amusement. She probably just thought that she were humoring a little girl and her game of pretend.

"Yeah!" Bonnie got that same spark in her eyes like she always did when she was about to ask the woman to marry him. "But he's really shy. He needs somebody to take care of him."

"Is that so?" The kneeling young woman looked towards Clemont, who felt his face get even hotter under her glance. She was looking at him the same way she had looked at Bonnie, like he was a small child. But Clemont was sure he saw a sad look in her eyes. Pity.

No, no, he was not dealing with this today. Absolutely not.

"Bonnie…" Clemont tried to get his sister's attention, but she ignored him.

"He keeps on saying that he doesn't need to be taken care of, but you can't believe that for a minute." Bonnie looked around and leaned closer to the girl before she continued in a 'whisper' that was barely even quieter than her loud voice. "He always gets so distracted by his inventions that he'll forget to eat and sleep if he's left alone for too long."

Clemont's face was really burning at this point. "Th-that's not true!" Sure, maybe he'd stayed up all night once or twice, and sometimes he would get so drawn in to his latest invention that he would work on it for hours without even realizing that he had skipped lunch, but Bonnie was making it sound so much worse than it actually was. This young woman probably thought that he couldn't be left alone without a babysitter, and it was absolutely mortifying.

Clemont wondered if all siblings were so good at exaggerating the best and worst qualities of their siblings, or if he was just unlucky.

The young woman smiled again, and it looked nice enough, but Clemont couldn't help but think that there was something off about it. "I think it's so sweet of you to worry about your brother as much as you do. He seems really...special."

All the blood that had built up in his cheeks seemed to rush away again so quickly that it left Clemont feeling slightly dizzy as he paled at the woman's wording. ' _Special'._ It was an innocent enough word, but one that Clemont had heard enough times in his life to know what she truly meant. And Bonnie, she had absolutely no idea.

"He is." Bonnie agreed without hesitating, and it made Clemont feel sick to his stomach. He knew that Bonnie was too young to really understand what the young woman was saying, but he still hated hearing his own little sister agree with the 'observation'. It still hurt.

"B-Bonnie, I think we should go find Ash and Serena now." Clemont suggested loudly. He was flustered and desperate to get away from the situation, and it was making him even more awkward and unnatural than he normally would be. He was probably just validating the strangers opinion of him, but at that moment he didn't care. He just wanted to get out of there. "Let's go."

"O-okay." Bonnie looked at Clemont and frowned, a look of slight concern in her eyes. She must be pretty worried about him if she backed down so easily. Bonnie looked at the young woman and bowed her head slightly in gratitude. "Thank you for helping me find my brother."

"It was my pleasure." The young woman got to her feet. "Are you two sure you don't need any more help?"

"We'll be fine." Bonnie said cheerfully.

"Well, if you insist." The woman looked uncertain, but didn't try to force the issue. She looked Bonnie in the eyes. "Don't stop watching over your brother, okay? He really needs somebody like you in his life." Clemont clenched his fists. This woman didn't know _anything_ , and he didn't want to have to listen to this anymore. "And please tell your brother that a sweet boy like him is bound to find the right person someday, and he shouldn't give up."

"Uh," Bonnie glanced at Clemont, a confused look on her face. "Okay?" Bonnie took Clemont's hand and began to lead him away. "Bye!" Bonnie waved at the young woman as they left, and she waved right back. Clemont gave the young woman no acknowledgement. He knew it was rude, and it was the kind of behavior that he would normally scold Bonnie for doing, but he couldn't be bothered to mind his manners at that moment. He was too focused on keeping himself calm.

Bonnie led Clemont for a few minutes until they got to the plaza in the middle of town. There was a fountain in the middle of all of the foot traffic, and that was where Bonnie decided they should stop. It wasn't where Ash and Serena were, but they were bound to walk by there eventually, so it was fine. And Clemont really wasn't in the mood to walk around any more than was necessary.

"Big brother, are you okay?" Bonnie sat down on the fountain and pulled Clemont to sit next to her. "You were acting really weird." Clemont flinched harshly and his reaction caused Bonnie to nearly panic. "Clemont! What's wrong?"

"...Please don't call me weird." Clemont said in a voice that was nearly inaudible. "Not right now."

Bonnie frowned slightly. "Is this about...do you need me to call Papa?"

Clemont shook his head and took a deep breath. "No, no, I'm fine."

"Is there something I can do?" Bonnie asked. Clemont knew that she was just trying to help, but at that moment it wasn't what he wanted.

"Why…" Clemont choked slightly on his words and swallowed. "Why do you think I need to be taken care of?"

"What?" Bonnie tilted her head in confusion. Clemont knew that in her eyes his question came completely out of nowhere, but to him, it was completely necessary.

"You're always asking girls if they would 'take care' of me." Clemont frowned and clutched at his clothes with his free hand. Bonnie gently squeezed the hand that she was still holding. "Like you don't think I can't take care of myself."

"It's not that you can't, it's just that you forget sometimes." Bonnie looked at the ground and kicked her feet. "I think that everybody needs to have somebody to take care of them. I...I just don't want you to be lonely the way that Papa was when Mommy left."

Clemont shuddered ever so slightly at the mention of their mother. He remembered the night that she had left as clearly as he would if it had happened yesterday. He was supposed to have been asleep, but he had been woken by the sound of his parents arguing. He knew he shouldn't have, but Clemont had gone to see what was going on. Because of this, Clemont had heard the very ending of their argument, and he didn't think he would ever be able to forget the last tearful words that he had heard from his mother.

" _I can't take care of him anymore."_

"I...I know you mean well," Clemont said, and he meant it. "But...I can't be with somebody who is with me just because they feel obligated to take care of me."

"Obligated?" Bonnie furrowed her brow. "Clemont, your wife would stay with you for the same reason that they would take care of you, because she would love you."

"I know that's the ideal situation," Clemont said, and if he was being honest with himself, it was in fact something that he wanted to eventually have. "But ...say if I'd actually gotten with that girl you met today. Neither of us would be happy?"

"How do you know?" Bonnie pouted. "You don't even know her.

"She doesn't know me either." Clemont looked at his younger sister. "The problem is, she thinks that she does.."

"...Really?" Bonnie looked both confused and unconvinced. "How can you tell?"

"Well…" Clemont thought for a moment. He knew what the young woman thought about him, but he hadn't actually thought about how he knew it. "Did you notice that she talked about me like I was a little kid?"

"Kinda?" Bonnie frowned.

"And she didn't actually talk to me at all. She asked you to tell me something, remember?" Clemont said.

"Yeah, I remember that." Bonnie frowned thoughtfully. "That was really weird. Why would she do that?"

"Because...because she didn't think she would be able to talk to me in a way that I would understand." Clemont said.

"That's ridiculous." Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Why wouldn't you understand her?"

Clemont looked across the plaza and watched the people who were walking past. "She thought that there was something...special about me."

"Special?" Bonnie's eyes widened. "Hey, she said you were special. What...what did she mean?"

Clemont sighed and tried to remember the way that Papa had explained it to him when he was younger. "With a machine, there are lots of different wires that need to be connected in different ways for it to work, right?"

"Right." Bonnie nodded. She wasn't as familiar with machines and mechanisms as Clemont was, but in all the time she had spent with him she had picked up some things.

"Well, imagine the human brain as a kind of machine." Clemont suggested as he hoped that she was able to follow the analogy. For most people, their brains are 'wired' in pretty much the same way. For some people though, there's something different about the wiring."

"Different how?" Bonnie asked.

"It all depends on the person." Clemont said. "Some people may have a wire missing altogether, which would take away a brain function. Some people might have wires that don't send enough power to an area of the brain. Some people might have wires that send too much power to a particular area of the brain, which might overload it sometimes. That's...that's what we think is going on with my brain."

Bonnie nodded, a look of understanding in her eyes. "But even machines that are different still work okay, right?"

Clemont let out a breath of relief that he hadn't even noticed he had been holding in. Bonnie got it. She understood much better than many adults did, and Clemont couldn't be more relieved and proud.

"Yes, they can still work okay." Clemont smiled. "It may take them more work to manage the same thing that most people can, but they still work. I'm glad you understand that. But some people, they _don't_ understand. The see somebody who may have a brain that works a little differently, and they think that there's something wrong with it."

"That's not fair." Bonnie pouted.

"No, it's not." Clemont tightened his grip on Bonnie's hand. "But we can't change the way that other people look at things any more than they can change the way that we see things."

"I guess so." Bonnie frowned. "But that woman seemed so nice."

"She probably was nice." Clemont admitted. "She just...she saw me as somebody who needed to be taken care of all the time."

Bonnie bit her lip. "...Like mommy did?"

Clemont felt his breath hitch in his throat at her words. "You...how do you know about that?"

Bonnie refused to meet his eyes. "I heard you and Papa talking once." Clemont was just about to scold her for listening in on private conversations when Bonnie looked up at him and continued desperately. "He's right, you know. It's not your fault that mommy left."

Clemont smiled slightly. Bonnie sounded so much like their papa when she said that. "I know." He assured her. "I just...forget sometimes."

Bonnie jumped to her feet. "Well, I'll just have to remind you." Bonnie smiled enthusiastically, and Clemont couldn't help but smile back. "I'm sure you know this, but I really care about you Clemont. That's not I want to take care of you, not because I feel like I have to."

"I know, I know." Clemont laughed as Bonnie pulled him to his feet. "Now, how about we go find Ash and Serena."

"Oh, maybe we can check at the ice cream cart?" Bonnie suggested mischievously.

"I don't see why not." Clemont didn't normally treat Bonnie to such treats in the middle of the afternoon when they would be eating dinner in just another few hours, but he thought he could make an exception. They could both probably use the pick-me-up. Afterwards they would find Ash and Serena, and the four of them would be on their way.

Maybe it was a little late in the day for them to leave, especially since they had originally planned on spending the night at the pokémon center in town, but Clemont thought that it would be best for them to leave as soon as possible. Clemont wasn't much in the mood for being around other people that day. He knew that Ash wouldn't mind getting on their way to the next gym. Serena might complain about camping out, but Clemont knew that she secretly enjoyed it.

Clemont just wanted to get back to what was familiar, and right now that was being on the road with his little sister and their two friends. Maybe it was weird for other people to imagine, but it was what was normal for him, and that was just the way he liked it.

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 **A/N:** **I know that this is a complicated matter to talk about, but I feel like I knew exactly what I wanted to say. I really want to be respectful about this though, and I hope I was able to do that.**

 **Also, I don't know if Clemont and Bonnie's mother is mentioned in the show. I know a lot of people write that she's dead, but I didn't know if that was canon or not, so I went with another reason why she would be out of the picture. I may be wrong though, and if I am, then I guess this is a bit of an AU**


End file.
